Notations For the weekend: A "View of the Week" On Leadership

One of the key driving force that ultimately insures that a "Vision of the Possible" can be made possible is through a simple concept that has been debated ever since the beginning of time:  Leadership.  It is a sense of leadership that shows the path ahead and provides the motivation for all to truly be transformational in their own right.    

Our team wanted to feature this very interesting primer on leadership that the Fortune's Geoff Colvin put together on a number of incoming CEO's.    It provides an analysis of the good, the bad and the ugly.    As we settled on this to share this as a "View of the Week", we were especially congiznant of the transition at Twitter and could not help but wonder whether Jack Dorsey would actually pull off the miracle all are hoping--Our founder noted that he sent off a congratulatory note to Jack Dorsey via Twitter earlier this week as we saw reports of him being touted as the permanent CEO For Twitter:

Daily insights on leaders and leadership By Geoff Colvin

October 2, 2015

It’s been a newsy few weeks for CEO turnover. Let’s assess the prospects of three newly minted chiefs and one who’s maybe-minted: –Jack Dorsey is the maybe CEO of Twitter, which he cofounded. He returned as interim CEO a few months ago when Dick Costolo stepped down, and news reportsWednesday said he was getting the job permanently. The company has still made no announcement, but investors have spoken: They hate the idea. The stock dropped yesterday on the news. The Dorsey idea faces at least two big problems. One, he’s already CEO of Square, the payments company that he founded and that he says he won’t be leaving, especially now that it’s preparing for an IPO. Could he really run two companies? Two, investors for now have no reason to believe Dorsey can solve Twitter’s big strategic problems, like where it will find more users and revenue. If he gets the job, his odds of succeeding look no better than even. –Stefan Larsson was named CEO of Ralph Lauren Corp. on Wednesday, and initially it looked like a home-run transition. Larsson, 41, came in from Old Navy and looked like just the kind of outsider who could restore Lauren’s growth. The stock jumped, after falling some 40% this year. But then Ralph himself sent a note to employees making clear that this wasn’t a transition at all. “I am not stepping down, nor am I stepping back. I am stepping up,” he said, and he noted pointedly that “As the largest shareholder, I will continue to nurture and grow this company.” Founders who can’t let go are an old story in business, and the story doesn’t usually end well. Larsson’s prospects look markedly worse today than they did two days ago. –Matthias Mueller became Volkswagen’s CEO one week ago, and so far it’s hard to tell if he might be the revolutionary that the company needs. In the best case, he could be like General Motors’ Mary Barra, an insider who understands the culture deeply and knows why and how to blow it up, and who uses the company’s current crisis to make it happen. That’s the best case. But he could also be a highly competent insider who’s hands are clean and who could be installed as CEO on short notice, but who has no intention of leading a revolution. And even if he wants to be a revolutionary, VW’s powerful supervisory board may not let him. For now his prospects are shrouded in fog, which is not an encouraging sign. –Carlos Munoz has been CEO of United Continental Holdings – United Airlines – for just over three weeks, and he’s starting off well. A headline at http://www.time.comthis morning sums up his stance: “United Airlines CEO Pledges to Stop Being Awful to Customers and Employees.” He is saying what needs to be said out loud, that the company has a problem, that it isn’t treating customers well, and that “this merger hasn’t gone as well as it could have.” That’s step one. Now he has to fix the culture and operations, and the hopeful news is that it can be done, as Gordon Bethunedemonstrated when he rescued Continental from far worse problems in the 1990s. Munoz faces a huge challenge, yet among all of September’s new CEOs, I like his prospects the best. Daily insights on leaders and leadership By Geoff Colvin September 30, 2015 Two of my favorite CEOs are in the news this morning, and while they could scarcely be more different, they share a leadership trait that’s worth a closer look: vision. I know, not every company needs a vision. Lou Gerstner famously said it was the last thing IBM needed when he came in as CEO 20-plus years ago; the company was in desperate trouble and needed an operational rescue above all. But sometimes, especially when a company is new, an insanely audacious, exhilarating vision – and a founder who can see it so clearly that it’s real – can make all the difference. Last night at an elaborate party in California, Elon Musk delivered the first Tesla Model X SUV, a vehicle that was clearly impossible to conventional thinkers. The auto industry is so crushingly capital intensive that obviously no new entrant other than a government could afford to get in. Musk disproved that view when he founded Tesla and produced the Model S, which then, in its latest version, again achieved the impossible by winning the first perfect score that the Consumer Reports auto rating system had ever delivered. And he says “the Model X is a better SUV than the Model S is a sedan.” Another impossible Musk venture, SpaceX, delivers supplies to the International Space Station at a fraction of what government rockets incur, but that business is just R&D for Musk’s real vision, colonizing Mars. SpaceX designers are already creating the 100-passenger Mars Colonial Transport. Musk also wants to revolutionize the electric utility business and has proposed a Hyperloop transport system running through tubes between Los Angeles and San Francisco – but enough. He’s obviously nuts, except that he obviously isn’t. He’s visionary. And if he weren’t, he’d never attract the workers, customers, and investors who make his visions real. Today’s other visionary leader in the news is Ralph Lauren, who announced yesterday that he’s stepping down as CEO of his company. You may say that his vision wasn’t remotely as grand and breathtaking as Musk’s, and in some ways that’s clearly right. But in some ways his vision was also unimaginable until he saw it. A multi-billion-dollar global fashion empire built on one person’s unique conception of style – a few of them exist today, but in the 1960s there were none. Not that Lauren saw his future fully at first. He started by designing some wide ties when skinny ties were the norm and persuading Bloomingdale’s to carry them. In time he came to realize he was selling not clothing but a vision of a world that existed nowhere except in his mind, and it was a world that millions of consumers would want to inhabit. It took its design cues from old-money America and then went far beyond, to clothing, accessories, and furniture that no Rockefeller or DuPont ever possessed. Eventually his vision even took the form of a private club in Milan and a restaurant in Manhattan in the quarters of the old La Côte Basque, one-time haunt of the rich and elegant. Gerstner was right, of course. Sometimes a vision is a distraction from what needs doing. And it will fail miserably if it isn’t genuine; people can tell instantly when there’s no true gleam in the visionary’s eye. But Musk and Lauren remind us how sometimes, when a leader’s vision is real, it’s power is beyond imagining.

The Friday Musical Interlude: Herb Alpert Performs Aranjeuz

It is time for the Friday Musical Interlude here in #Outsiders and hope all enjoy this selection as we embrace the first weekend of the new quarter:

The #Outsider Musical Interlude (Quarter-End): Kygo Here for You (Official Audio) ft. Ella Henderson

It has been a whirlwind of a quarter in our World as our team was on the "prowl" assessing our World.   We wanted to end the session on a positive note as we hope all enjoy our Artist as we live up to this admonition to be "Here For you" on the eve of a new Quarter and as we continue to evolve #outsiders: 

Notations On our World (Special Edition) : On the UN Global Goals

As our team has been assessing the on-going matters and gearing up for the new Quarter, we were extremely gratified here @ #OutsiThe as the Global Goals was  approved unanimously.   

 One of the projects before us will be to work on its' assessment over the ensuing weeks, months and years.     In the midst of so much challenges around our world--as epitomized by the continued carnage in Syria and the latest in Afghanistan with the fall of Kunduz, , it is of great significance and it was one of the many highlights throughout the Quarter.     

 UNICEF noted the following in a Tweet: 

UNICEF (@UNICEF)

Ambitious? Yes. Unachievable? No. The 17 #GlobalGoals can improve millions of children’s lives by 2030. #SDGs pic.twitter.com/fUMncGD3UN

We see no other choice in the ultimate quest to create the ultimate "vision of the possible". 

Notations From the Grid: On a Battle with California Utitlies

One of our "Must Reads" is a local Blog here in Orange County that focuses on Renewables.   We received this very interesting post as the struggle for Power Generation ensures here in California and the implications for it all.   It is quite interesting to note this especially as Shell stopped its' Arctic Oil Exploration yesterday and as the +The Guardian 's "Keep it in the Ground" campaign gathers steam as we noted in our "Notations From the World" Daily yesterday here in the Visions' Channel.

More information: LA Times Article Latest OCR Blog Post

California Utilities looking to expedite their own death / irrelevance An article in this weekend's LA Times discusses how CA utilities are proposing fixed charges for customers with solar panels as well as deep cuts to the net metering credit currently received by solar adopters.   Explored deeper in the latest OCR Blog Post, this can basically be described as financial motivation to home owners to start storing their own solar overproduction in home based batteries (eventually). Is this the first shot in the war of distributed vs centralized generation?  Oh what times we live in! ~ Adam Plesniak, Managing Director OCrenewables.org

Notations On Our World: "Keep it in the Ground"

One of the more interesting development we have followed has been the "Keep it in the ground" initiative that was launched by the Guardian of London.     This was received recently that underscores the level of commitment out there today which is a testament to the realization of a future without fossil fuels.   The visit of the Chinese President and agreements reached with President Obama on Carbon reductions and the launch of the Global Goals by the UN is also steps in this direction.

Our team will be continuing to assess this development as we share this latest update we received earlier this week: 

	This is an incredible news! The worldwide divestment movement that you have supported through your backing for the Guardian's Keep it in the Ground campaign has now grown to over 400 organisations - worth a colossal $2.6 trillion (£1.68 trillion). The movement that started on American university campuses has now spread to faith groups, philanthropic funders, local authorities and pension funds in over 40 countries. In the last year, the total assets managed by funds that have decided to divest has grown 50-fold. Environmentalist Bill McKibben who set up 350.org, the NGO that has spearheaded the divestment movement, said: "In the hottest year we've ever measured on our planet, big institutions and organisations are finally stepping up to say: we won't participate in this charade, and we will stand up to the fossil fuel companies that are causing it. A 50-fold increase is a sign that civil society is finally fully on the move in the battle against climate change". This is a big statement from civil society. Help the movement grow:  This is as +350.org is spreaheading this initaitive as The Major Conference in Paris draws ever so closer: Friends, In December, world governments will meet in Paris and attempt to reach a new global agreement on climate change. Previous climate talks haven’t been huge successes, so it's no surprise that the commitments on the table right now fall short of what science & justice demand. That doesn't mean the Paris talks aren't important, though. For a few weeks, the world's attention will be squarely focused on the climate crisis and what needs to be done to solve it. Paris will be in the spotlight, and it's up to our movement to seize the moment. Our message is this: We need to keep at least 80% of fossil fuels in the ground and invest in a just transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050. That's the level of ambition we want to see demonstrated at the summit in Paris. That kind of ambition won't come from politicians, however. We need to push hard the next few months -- to get the best climate deal that we can in Paris, and to make sure that this summit doesn't represent the end of the story. Starting this weekend and running through the next couple of weeks, people around the world are hosting “Power Through Paris” workshops to start building momentum for the months ahead. There's at least one workshop near you coming up -- can you be part of this moment? Here are all the details from event hosts in your area: What: Power Through Paris Workshop When: Saturday, September 26, 2:00 PM Where: Cousin's Living Room! - Laguna Niguel, CA Click here to to let the workshop host know that you'll be there. The only thing that has ever worked to move world governments into action is grassroots organizing by people like you and me. At the workshop, you'll have an opportunity to meet people in your community who care about climate action, discuss plans for Paris, and start working together -- so that together we can be stronger and louder than the fossil fuel industry, in Paris and beyond. The key here is momentum: Right now, we're learning, meeting, building relationships, and hatching plans. In November and December, we'll take to the streets to make sure that our demands to keep fossil fuels in the ground and build a just transition to 100% renewable energy are heard -- both locally and on the global level. When the talks wrap up, the climate movement will still have plenty of work to do, no matter what kind of deal comes out of the summit. But if we start now, we'll have a bigger, smarter, and more connected climate movement to carry this work forward past December. I hope you can join a "Power through Paris" workshop in your community. People are going to make the difference here, not politicians -- and that means you. Thanks for being part of this movement, David & the 350.org team Our view is that once we can overcome such challenges, we can continue to encourage developments such as this that Steve Case Shared earlier this year:

	Steve Case (@SteveCase)
5/11/15, 11:33 AM Inspired by global entrepreneurs pitching to #SharkTank at whitehouse including @pjlalah of Nigeria…instagram.com/p/2jUWAHljgq/

Notations From the Grid: A "View of the Week"

Earlier, our founder released this in his Personal Twitter Feed that we decided to share here as a way to motivate and to remember what is important especially as we have been witness to history with the Holy Father in the United States, Global Goals being adopted unanimously by the UN and the advent of the 70th General Assembly of the United Nations:

Great advise 👏🏻🎉💥14 Powerful Quotes by the Invincible Serena Williams to Motivate You http://t.co/P5q7maRjlf

— Mike Pouraryan (@mikepouraryan) September 26, 2015

The Friday Musical Interlude; Klaus Badelt......

Today is a solemn day as the Holy Father is at the 9/11 Memorial and as a beautiful interfaith service is being held to remember the fallen on that terrible day and to honor their memory.     We hope all enjoy this selection we made from our Artist of the Week, Klaus Badelt, on this solemn day and as the UN General Assembly begins and as the UN General Assembly just unanimously adopted Agenda 2030:  

An #Outsider Newsflash (Special Edition) : An Update on one of our #Kickstarter Backed Projects

We here @ #Outsiders were early and enthusiastic supporters of this fabulous initiative.     We just received this update in our Virtual Studios over email which we wanted to report on--it speaks for itself as we eagerly await to get our hands on our own and to develop and report on it here in the "Visions" Channel:

21 Holy Ship! Alpha Ships Have C.H.I.P.ped!!! Posted by Next Thing Co.

THAT'S RIGHT...ALPHA C.H.I.P.s HAVE SHIPPED!!! This, clearly, is Gus' happy face. Our Kernel Hacker Backers, our brave StarC.H.I.P. Troopers, should see their Alpha C.H.I.P.s arrive in 7-9 days. Keep your eyes on those mailboxes! These things are coming in hot! More what? Keep reading! ALL KHBs WILL RECEIVE A SECOND ALPHA C.H.I.P.! This is a great opportunity for a shipping dress rehearsal as we test our shipping integration.  There will be two different Alpha C.H.I.P. shipments.  The first shipment of Alpha C.H.I.P.s will be shipped unflashed to get our Kernel Hackers hacking immediately.   Don't worry, we have plenty of documentation to get you started. First Run Alpha C.H.I.P.s: Safety Tested and Ready to Go! The second shipment of Alpha C.H.I.P.s (estimated to arrive by mid-October) will be factory flashed with our buildroot image. Alex, Wynter, and our friend Peter have worked diligently to give everyone a clean and simple C.H.I.P. experience out of the box. Get started with the C.H.I.P. Flashing Tutorial! If you are a Kernel Hacker Backer, and have not yet confirmed your address, get on it! Shoot us your shipping address atchip.backerkit.com and we’ll shoot your Alpha C.H.I.P.s right back! Documentation & Sharing For more tutorials, information and instructions, head to42.nextthing.co, your new home for all NTC official documentation. Submit all Kernel Hacks by submitting a pull request on GitHub. Join the community conversation on the NTC forum atbbs.nextthing.co. Tweet us what you're working on!  Find us at @NextThingCo! GET HACKING! Shipping Alpha C.H.I.P.s in September is a huge milestone for us.  Just as Dave screamed in the Kickstarter video, we are so excited to see what you can do with a 9 dollar computer!Get Hacking! And don't forget to write! We looked so much younger four and half months ago... \m/(>.<)\m/ - everyone @NextThingCo

Notations From the Grid: Can This Be Possible?

As our World transforms and digitizes ever more, one very interesting question is how to take advantage of the very thing that makes it all possible:  The power of the Human Intellect.    Our team reflected upon this question as we saw this question posed:

Could The U.S. Ever Adopt A Six-Hour Workday? Sweden's latest experiment with a six-hour workday is going well, but could reduced hours ever fly in our workaholic culture?

A Lot to contemplate......

Thought 4 the Week (Special Edition): On Discipline

Our team has been quite busy pounding the "Virtual Pavement".   We wanted to take a moment of pause to report on this we received from the John Maxwell Team on a special edition of Thought For the Week which we hope is of interest:

Today's Word of the Day DISCIPLINE Dear Friend, It is so nice to begin the day together. I am thrilled to join Miss America and John Maxwell Team Member, Teresa Scanlan for today’s word: “discipline”. Discipline is doing the thing that you should do when you don’t want to do it. But if you do it, you’ll be glad you did.Today's... A Minute with Maxwell video message is ready for you. Click the image, watch the video, leave us your comments and then pass it along to others, and together we can enrich the world. Enjoy! Your friend, John C. Maxwell Click Here to Play Video Inspire someone else by sharing today's message. http://johnmaxwellteam.com/2015-discipline

Thought For the Week: On Happiness

Part of creating the "Vision of the Possible" is on Outlook.  It all begins with being Happy which we wanted to share as our new Week dawn:

“Be happy for no reason, like a child.
If you are happy for a reason, you’re in trouble,
because that reason can be taken from you.”

~ Deepak Chopra

Notations on Our World (Special Edition): TechKnow

Our team recently caught an episode of TechKnow which deal with what Ford is doing with Car Manufacturing.   We were startled to discover that 85% of cars manufactured by Ford are from sustainable products--they even use discarded Dollars they get from the US Treasury Department to strengthen components!!!

We were so amazed with the quality of the information, we decided to feature their playlist for this special edition of Notations on Our World which we hope all enjoy.

Notations From the Grid (weekend edition): Scary is the Only Word as we released this on Twitter

As we have an on-going assessment of "Visions", this is quite an indictment by the Editor-In-Chief of the @Verge & the contributing editor for Venture Beat worth noting which we will also be assessing throughout #Outsiders:

on #techwatch evening : https://t.co/iK4fgP4VFb via @VentureBeat

— The Daily Outsider (@DailyOutsider) September 21, 2015

on #techwatch w/this. :-( Welcome to hell: #Apple vs. #Google vs. #Facebook and the slow death of the web http://t.co/foZQ4THxTW via @verge

— The Daily Outsider (@DailyOutsider) September 21, 2015

Never a dull moment.....

Notations For the weekend: On Making a Difference

As we continue our journey here in #outsiders, we reflect upon the best that's out there and feature it here.    These two talks we ran across was quite timely for us as we hope all will enjoy.  It is in the end about making a difference and transforming the way we look at our World:

The world is coming together to fight poverty -- and Mia Birdsong suggests a great place to start: with the skills, drive and initiative that poor people and families bring to the struggle every day. She asks us to look again at people in poverty, not as problems but as part of the solution. A powerful talk about people who are broke — but not broken. Watch » Michael Kimmel makes the surprising, funny -- and very practical -- case for treating men and women equally in the workplace and at home, starting right now. Equality is not a zero-sum game where men lose when women gain, he says; it's a win-win that will result in more opportunity and more happiness (and maybe even more sex) for everybody.  Watch »

As we also reflected upon the transformation that we must have in our world, our team received this from the Commander of the International Space Station which we hope all enjoy.    He and his team are also at the forefront of creating the Vision of the Possible which is part and parcel of why we are here.     Our team can't wait to also check out the Martian that is coming to Theaters October 2.

As the great Diane Nyad always reminds us, Onward!!!

 

THE WHITE HOUSE

Heading into the unknown… Almost everything we know about living in space ends at six months. Now that I am at the midpoint of my mission, heading into the second half of one year in space aboard the International Space Station, I am looking forward to exploring the science of this uncharted territory and stepping into the unknown. My Russian colleague Mikhail Kornienko and I are living in space for one year to push the edge of our scientific understanding. To add in another dynamic, researchers are conducting “twin studies” to compare the subtle effects and changes in spaceflight as compared to Earth by studying my twin brother and I, two individuals who have almost identical genetics, but are in different environments for one year. We hope that the knowledge gained on this mission will benefit the Earth and that the data collected will help send humans to new destinations, supporting the next generation of space exploration. Whether it is living in low Earth orbit for one year or a two year mission to the Red Planet, I have learned that human potential is limitless and we should never stop pushing the boundaries of exploration. Thank you for supporting me and joining me on this mission. I am posting on social media with the hope that I can bring all of you on Earth along for the ride. I want to inspire you to reach further for your dreams and know that anything is possible. The people who make International Space Station operations possible, the flight controllers watching over our ship 24-7-365, and the researchers analyzing the data we get back have invested their careers and lives to this mission to serve the United States and inspire the next generation. I have traveled 72 million miles around Earth in the past 171 days -- flying at 17,500mph -- and have had the opportunity to experience our home planet from an incredible perspective. When I come home in March, I will have orbited the Earth 5,472 times traveling 141.7 million statute miles and spent more time in space than any U.S. astronaut in history. Please join me for the next six months of my mission -- as I reach these milestones and continue NASA’s work off the Earth, for the Earth. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly takes a selfie with the Bahamas from 250 miles above Earth aboard the International Space Station. Please continue to follow the mission at www.nasa.gov/station and on social media at @StationCDRKelly on Twitter and Instagram, NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly on Facebook and using #YearInSpace. Sincerely, Scott Scott Kelly NASA Astronaut

The Friday Musical Interlude: Rana Mansour Performs.....

It is time for the Friday Musical Interlude and we wanted to feature our artist of the week, Rana Mansour, which we hope you all enjoy: